1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine with a locking function and a control method thereof.
2. Discussion of the Background
Examples of a conventional slot machine are disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,459, U.S. Pat. No. 6,695,697, U.S. Ser. No. 2003/0069073-A1, EP 1192975-A, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,254,483, 5,611,730, 5,639,088, 6,257,981, 6,234,896, 6,001,016, 6,273,820, 6,224,482, 4,669,731, 6,244,957, 5,910,048, 5,695,402, 6,003,013, 4,283,709, EP0631798-A, DE4137010-A1, GB 2326830-A, DE 3712841-A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,964,638, 6,089,980, 5,280,909, 5,702,303, 6,270,409, 5,770,533, 5,836,817, 6,932,704, 6,932,707, 4,837,728, EP 1302914-A, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,624,459, 5,564,700, WO 03/083795-A, DE 3242890-A1, EP 0840264-A, DE 10049444-A1, WO 04/095383-A, EP 1544811-A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,963, EP 1477947-A, and EP 1351180-A. In a facility where a slot machine or the like is installed, a variety of game media such as coins or cash are inserted into the slot machine to play a game. Each slot machine is configured to according to a winning state (game result) occurring along with development of games.
Among those conventional gaming machines, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,048 for example, there has been a slot machine in which a profit is returned to the player when loss of the game media reaches a predetermined amount. Further, there also has been a slot machine in which a profit is returned to the player when the number of games reaches a specific number in a game where a unit game is repeatedly executed.
On a gaming machine in which some awards can be offered to the player for playing games over a long period of time such as a slot machine that returns the profit to the player when the number of games reaches the specific number, a case could happen where the player desires to interrupt the game once for the restroom, meals or the like, while keeping the history of games (e.g., the number of games) that the player has played until that time. However, it is not possible to distinguish an available slot machine from a reserved slot machine by external appearances of the conventional gaming machines; therefore, another player could play games on this gaming machine when the player has interrupted the game and left the slot machine.
Moreover, in the conventional gaming machines, there has been a problem where there is an extremely high possibility that another player plays games on this gaming machine when the player has interrupted the game and left the gaming machine for some reason when a favorable gaming state for the player is generated on the gaming machine, since it is not possible to distinguish an available gaming machine from a reserved gaming machine by the external appearances thereof.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine and a control method thereof which are capable of preventing the gaming machine from being played by other players when the player interrupts the game and leaves the gaming machine, and letting the player play games at ease for a long period of time.
The contents of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,820,459, 6,695,697, U.S. Ser. No. 2003/0069073-A1, EP 1192975-A, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,254,483, 5,611,730, 5,639,088, 6,257,981, 6,234,896, 6,001,016, 6,273,820, 6,224,482, 4,669,731, 6,244,957, 5,910,048, 5,695,402, 6,003,013, 4,283,709, EP 0631798-A, DE 4137010-A1, GB 2326830-A, DE 3712841-A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,964,638, 6,089,980, 5,280,909, 5,702,303, 6,270,409, 5,770,533, 5,836,817, 6,932,704, 6,932,707, 4,837,728, EP 1302914-A, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,624,459, 5,564,700, WO 03/083795-A, DE 3242890-A1, EP 0840264-A, DE 10049444-A1, WO 04/095383-A, EP 1544811-A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,963, EP 1477947-A, and EP 1351180-A are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.